Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photo, drawings etcetera. by a “resident alien”, who has arrived on American dirt from a far-away world also known as “Germany”.

Word-of the thirty days: Liebeskummer

A mixture of Liebe (appreciate) and Kummer (suffering, sadness) that refers to the state of mind of individuals whose relationship isn’t heading well, particularly the sorrow experienced by jilted fans.

10 remarks:

Hi Ulrich, In my opinion this is certainly an excellent keyword, and that I are unable to think of a counterpart in English. although at once or some other, all, or at least a lot of, folks has had a need to make use of it. What is the guide when it comes to? I love the subject.

The succinct subject of the book, Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer, is tough to change gracefully–the literal definition are “Moselle lake travel as a result of Liebeskummer”. It’s a novella, written in the 30s, describing a trip along and on the Mosel (Moselle) lake where the narrator attempts to conquer their Liebeskummer. It has loving summaries associated with the lake, the towns that range it, as well as the those who grow drink there–I lived in one of them villages when I went along to primary school.

Upon rereading passages of it, however, i have to admit that subject could very well be the good thing regarding the guide!

“The Germans must have a term for it. Doppelgedanken, perhaps: the sensation, whenever checking out, that very own thoughts are giving birth on terms as they appear on the webpage. This type of could be the ego that on these rare instances you ask yourself, a€?How could mcdougal bring recognized what I had been thinking?a€?

I do believe the quotation shows that the reviewer shares what your website has actually over repeatedly shown, that the Germans are professionals at discovering terms that specifically recognize says of brain. Liebeskummer was still another instance.

: Thx for aiming this analysis out. I retrieved the review from our stack of tabloids to get reprocessed (I experienced misied they a week ago).

Your quote, made further powerful b/c it is the beginning part with the analysis, verifies, because state, that it is an easy task to coin new conditions immediately in German by hitching collectively two independent phrase (frequently nouns, but not necessarily very). Doppelgedanke is actually an example–I’ve not witnessed it in German, but Germans would comprehend it inside context where it’s granted, supplied they get the allusion to your well-established DoppelgA¤nger.

I am additionally, definitely, considerably used by the ‘official’ acknowledgment of your convenience of German inside the paragraph and amazed the reviewer thinks like that, that she discovers it–apparently–convenient, often times, to ‘think in German’.

It really drives us to continue with my word-of-the-month threads. But In addition would you like to point out that English supplies coinages which have no similar in German, and I also may write a thread shortly coping with this subservient topic.

That is an interesting subject, the English coinages which have no real equal in German. We wonder if you will see in English–and maybe you will–the method of words I’ve found thus wonderful in German, those ingredients highlighting, really correctly, a particular frame of mind. Not every one of their German instances did that but several posses and I including all of them much better than her English equivalents, if you don’t equivalents, for example, Fraidy cat versus Angsthase. I do expect you are going to carry on with your words associated with thirty days. I must say I delight in all of them.

The conventional examples of English expressions w/o genuine similar in German include “fair play” and “typical sense”–they were used such as that in German a long time before the present tsunami of English terms started initially to hit German, which include keywords for which there is no need at all, like “game”, whoever connotations can be found in not a chance distinct from regarding German Spiel. In teen speak, on the web, advertising etcetera German occurs today as a combination of German and English. I will be, actually, enthusiastic about seeing how this will pan in the end–i.e. when this will blow more than as a fad or may have a lasting impact on German, e.g. significantly enlarge its vocabulary. My personal estimate is the latter may happen.

The upshot is that if I want to starting a bond on English terms without genuine cognates in German, the problem is made more complicated through this situation. Regardless, I’m beginning a web page where I gather candidate phrases–I need undoubtedly a lot more than “reasonable play” and “commonsense”.

Beautiful term, Liebeskummer, and there’s a Dutch similar, liefdesverdriet. It is really amazing there is no English keyword for this. It occurs occasionally that I’m wanting to change an English term into Dutch, and there only is no right term. I shall take the time to tell you, Ulrich.